San Diego  There’s no denying that San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith is in a unique position in the middle of a strange situation.

As allegations of sexual harassment have snowballed against Mayor Bob Filner, resulting in at least one lawsuit, Goldsmith is caught between defending the city’s liability while also answering to the public who elected him to office.

It’s a high-stakes tightrope that many City Hall and legal observers say Goldsmith seems to be walking well.

But not everybody agrees with his strategy.

Goldsmith forms one side of a sharp legal triangle in the mayor’s sexual harassment case. He is opposed by Filner’s attorney Harvey Berger, one of the top labor lawyers in town, and Gloria Allred, a high-profile women’s rights attorney representing the plaintiff, Irene McCormack Jackson, the mayor’s former director of communications.

So far, it seems we are in for a showdown.

Just two weeks into the lawsuit, Goldsmith has made some aggressive first moves. He’s the first attorney to subpoena for a deposition in the case. He followed up with a cross-complaint, suing Filner in an effort to hold him responsible for any costs the city might incur in the case. Then the City Council voted in closed session not to pay for Filner’s attorney fees.

“If he committed sexual harassment with a city employee, we’re going to be liable for his acts,” Goldsmith told U-T San Diego in an interview last week. “That’s why we sued him in a cross-complaint.”

Former Mayor Jerry Sanders, who worked alongside Goldsmith during the last part of his term, said the city attorney is taking the right approach.

“Jan is going to protect the city. He’s not going to protect any individual. He’s going to protect the taxpayers,” said Sanders. “I think he’s going to do it in a way to make sure the victims aren’t revictimized again.”

Many legal observers expect the case to be settled at some level before trial, a step that often takes place once depositions and discovery have revealed all the facts. As much as 99 percent of civil cases, and notably sexual harassment cases, never make it to trial.

He wrote that cases are evaluated for settlements by experienced lawyers and a risk management team.

“If a case should be settled, we will advise the client at the earliest point possible,” Goldsmith said. “Some cases must got to trial for a variety of reasons.”

Political savvy

Unlike the other two opposing lawyers in the case, Goldsmith is an elected official.

His political resume is long. He was an attorney focusing mostly on real-estate law when he became a Poway city councilman in 1988. At 39, he became Poway’s first elected mayor. He went on to three terms in the state Assembly. He returned to the courtroom as a judge, deciding criminal cases in El Cajon for nine years before stepping into the contentious 2008 city attorney race.

A popular line of his on the campaign trail went like this: “I’ve practiced the law, I’ve written the law, I’ve taught the law and I’ve enforced the law.”